The Second Chance Part One
Bernie Vincenzo1 Bernie Vincenzo1 Thursday, March 27, 2008 The Second Chance Part One by Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thomson The Second Chance Part One Bernie Vincenzo1 Bernie Vincenzo1 Thursday, March 27, 2008The Second Chance Part One by Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thomson Sgt.Bernie Venchenzo,met an Atlantean Sorcerer named Lasar Sarkhon.Knowing where he lives at Sarkhon Mansion,the New York City cabbie takes the WWII B17 vet to him to see if he can help him.Maxwell,tell the Atlantean Sorcerer his story,how left his crew to die,bailed of his plane and lived,while crew died.For years,Maxwell was haunted,not by just their memories,but their actual ghost,bullet ridden,bloody and shot up. Bernie Vincenzo1 Bernie Vincenzo1 Thursday, March 27, 2008The Second Chance Part One by Joseph Gilbert Thompson and Carl Edward Thomson Sgt.Bernie Venchenzo,met an Atlantean Sorcerer named Lasar Sarkhon.Knowing where he lives at Sarkhon Mansion,the New York City cabbie takes the WWII B17 vet to him to see if he can help him.Maxwell,tell the Atlantean Sorcerer his story,how left his crew to die,bailed of his plane and lived,while crew died.For years,Maxwell was haunted,not by just their memories,but their actual ghost,bullet ridden,bloody and shot up. # Sgt.Bernie Venchenzo,met an Atlantean Sorcerer named Lasar Sarkhon.Knowing where he lives at Sarkhon Mansion,the New York City cabbie takes the WWII B17 vet to him to see if he can help him.Maxwell,tell the Atlantean Sorcerer his story,how left his crew to die,bailed of his plane and lived,while crew died.For years,Maxwell was haunted,not by just their memories,but their actual ghost,bullet ridden,bloody and shot up. Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 war film about crews of the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King (uncredited) and Beirne Lay Jr. from the 1948 novel by Bartlett and Lay. It was directed by King and stars Gregory Peck as Brigadier General Frank Savage, Gary Merrill as Colonel Keith Davenport, Millard Mitchell as General Patrick Pritchard, Dean Jagger as Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Harvey Stovall, Hugh Marlowe as Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately, and [Arthur (radio announcer)|Robert Arthur as Sergeant McIllhenny. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two: Dean Jagger for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Sound, Recording. It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Section 1.02 Contents hide 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cast 3.1 Historical counterparts of characters 3.1.1 Colonel Frank A. Armstrong, Jr. (1902–1969) 3.1.2 Major General Ira C. Eaker (1896–1987) 3.1.3 Colonel Charles B. Overacker 3.1.4 Lieutenant John C. Morgan (1914–1991) 3.1.5 Sergeant Donald Bevan 3.1.6 Major Paul Tibbets (1915–2007) 4 Reception 5 Awards 6 Radio and television 7 References 7.1 Notes 7.2 Bibliography 8 External links Section 1.03 edit Plot The film begins in 1949, as American attorney Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger) spies a familiar toby jug in an English antique shop. He buys it, boards a train and then bicycles to the abandoned airbase at Archbury where he served in World War II. The film then flashes back to 1942. Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill) is the commanding officer of the 918th Bomb Group, a hard-luck unit suffering from poor morale. He has become too close to his men and is troubled by the losses sustained. General Patrick Pritchard (Millard Mitchell), commanding general of the VIII Bomber Command, Eighth Air Force, recognizes that Davenport himself is the problem and after a disastrous mission in which half the Group's bombers were shot down, relieves him of command, but places him in an important staff position at headquarters. Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck), General Pritchard's A-3 (Operations Officer) who commanded the first B-17 group to fight over Europe, is his replacement. Savage finds his new command in disarray and begins to address the discipline problems, dealing with everyone so harshly that the men begin to detest him. Savage is particularly hard on Colonel Ben Gately (Hugh Marlowe), the Group Air Executive Officer, placing him under arrest for being Absent Without Leave in the time between Davenport being relieved and Savage arriving. Gately tries to challenge Savage, but the general demotes him to command of a B-17 Flying Fortress named "Leper Colony", manned by the least competent airmen in the group. Whenever any man in the 918th fails to measure up, Savage transfers him to Gately's plane. Major Joe Cobb (John Kellogg), one of Savage's squadron commanders, takes Gately's place as Air Exec. Upset by Savage's stern brand of leadership, all of the 918th's pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant, Major Stovall, to delay processing their applications, to get himself more time to turn the Group around. Stovall, skating on the edge of regulations, does so. The 918th resumes combat operations, and Savage continues to earn everyone's enmity with his harsh post-mission critiques. However, the airmen and pilots begin to change their minds about him after he leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and all of the aircraft make it back safely. Publicity shot of Gregory Peck in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) Savage tries to enlist a young pilot, Medal of Honor-nominee Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten) to help him change the attitude of the other pilots. Bishop eventually comes to believe in the general, and when the Inspector General arrives to check out the unrest, Bishop convinces the other pilots to withdraw their requests for transfer. Later, Savage learns that Gately has been hospitalized, having flown two missions with a chipped vertebrae that caused him acute pain. Gately's stoicism in flying without complaint despite his injury brings about a rapprochement between him and Savage. The Leper Colony was lost in the crash which had injured Gately, but there is no longer a need for a special "disciplinary" aircraft as Gately moves back to a position of importance. As the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier, with enemy resistance increasingly intense. Many of Savage's best men are shot down or killed. General Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job with him, but Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th Group isn't quite ready to stand up without him yet. Pritchard reluctantly leaves Savage in command because he needs a proven leader for a series of important raids (known in Air Force history as Big Week). The first of these missions, aimed at destroying Germany's ball bearing industry, has the Luftwaffe throwing everything available at the bomber force. Although the target is hit, the 918th takes a beating, losing six of twenty-one B-17s. Savage watches Cobb's airplane blow up from a direct flak hit after he has to turn the bomber stream to pass directly over a known antiaircraft battery, and is shaken by the loss of one of his best combat commanders. On returning to base, Savage concludes that a second strike on the same target is necessary. A follow-up mission is scheduled for the next day. However, as the Flying Fortresses are warming up for takeoff, Savage is unable to haul himself up into his B-17. He suffers a nervous breakdown, finally becoming temporarily catatonic. As with Keith Davenport before him, Savage allowed himself to care too much for "his boys" and has paid the price. Gately takes over the air command and the mission lead, eventually bringing most of the group back safely, after destroying the target. Savage's fate is unclear. (In the novel, he returns to the United States to take command of the Second Air Force.) The flashback ends; Harvey Stovall rides away from the airbase on his bicycle. Section 1.04 edit Production According to their files, Twentieth-Century Fox paid "$100,000 outright for the to the book plus up to $100,000 more in escalator and book club clauses." Darryl Zanuck was apparently convinced to pay this high price when he heard that William Wyler was interesting in purchasing it for Paramount. Even then, Zanuck only went through with the deal in October 1947 when he was certain that the United States Air Force would support the production.1 Twelve O'Clock High was indeed produced with the full cooperation of the Air Force and made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes, including some shot by the Luftwaffe.1 A good deal of the production was filmed at a working air base, Eglin Air Force Base2 Screenwriters Bartlett and Lay drew on their own wartime experiences with Eighth Air Force bomber units. Veterans of the heavy bomber campaign frequently cite Twelve O'Clock High as the only Hollywood film that accurately captured their combat experiences. Along with the 1948 film Command Decision, it marked a turning away from the optimistic, morale-boosting style of wartime films and toward a grittier realism that deals more directly with the human costs of war. Both films deal with the realities of "daylight precision bombing" without fighter escort, the basic Army Air Force doctrine at the start of the Second World War. In retrospect, this was a strategic mistake. Daylight precision bombing became a viable technique only after long-range fi